Ambient Devices' Market Maven watches stocks, tether free

It's been a long wait to see Ambient Devices' promise of "thin data" wireless devices finally come to fruition, but that doesn't mean all the charm has gone from idea. Case in point: this here Market Maven, which Ambient Devices is prepping to launch in September, might not do anything you can't already pull off with your Optimus Mini Three or even a simple desktop widget, but there's an undeniable beauty to the thing all the same. Of course, you might quickly forget how great this guy looks when you realize that all it can do is pull the DJIA, NASDAQ and S&P 500 activity every 15 minutes, tell you if the market is open, and let you know the time. That makes it hard to justify the $125 asking price, but the good news is that after you slap a few AAAs in this guy, it'll do its thing configuration free, with no pesky internet connection or subscriptions to deal with -- data comes courtesy of Ambient Devices' own Infocast Network, which reaches about 90% of US households. Oh well, we're still loving the umbrella.